Newsletter June 2021
Dear Parents and Carers,
Welcome to a great final half-term of this very unusual school year!
We are delighted that so many of you were able to take part in Monday’s virtual Parent Consultations and with your children. You will know from your conversations with your children’s teachers how they are progressing in their learning and what their next steps are. We are looking forward to working with you this half-term to support all of your children making even more progress, and our curriculum has been adapted to support this based on the children’s learning so far. You will be able to read about this year’s learning and progress towards the end of this term when we send home the children’s End of Year Reports.
In the meantime we are working on transitions for new children due to join our school in Reception and Nursery in September, and the transition to High School for our Year 6 pupils. More details of transition meetings are on our school website and Year 6 parents will be receiving news of our exciting end of Year 6 events.
It is great to be reflecting on pupils’ good attendance since the school re-opened in March, and we have had no COVID cases in the school since then. However, we do remain cautious about maintaining our school risk assessments and procedures because there are increasing numbers of reported COVID infections in our local community, and I would urge you to continue to follow the government guidance regarding testing if you or a family member has possible COVID symptoms, self-isolation and reporting this to the school. Harrow’s Director of Public Health has just written a letter for families regarding Surge Testing and financial compensation for working adults who need to self-isolate. Please do take time to read this and remember to wear a face covering when entering the school site, unless you are exempt.
This week we have been really encouraged by the speed of the staggered start in the mornings, and I have had conversations with some parents about reducing the window for different phases to enter the school site from 10 to 5 minutes. This would mean that Years 5 and 6 would still come into school at 8.30am, but we could get Years 3 and 4 into school at 8.35am, Years 1 and 2 at 8.40 am and Reception at 8.45am. Stargazers pupils would start at 8.50am.
At the moment we cannot find a way to lengthen the Nursery sessions so that both morning and afternoon classes have equal amounts of time in school, but we are confident that this should be possible in September.
We want to begin these new transition times NEXT WEEK, and we really need to you support us with this by bringing your children to school on time every morning, and collecting them promptly. Being late is distressing for children and also disrupts our smooth transition and keeping year group bubbles apart.
Finally, a reminder that your children need to wear the correct PE Kit and school uniform (see below) and sending children to school with a sun hat, applying sub cream before school and making sure they always have a labelled bottle of water — hydration is important! We are a healthy school and would encourage parents to provide healthy snacks when collecting children at the end of the day.
